Can you tell me about Source 4s?

Jim Feldspar · January 26, 2007

I have a shoot coming up that takes place in a room about 20' long by 12' wide.

The ceilings are low, about 8'. For the second scene, I'd like to have a window pattern

of some kind with a warm light on all on one end wall. Usually, I make a pattern with gaffers

tape and Foam Core but I may not be able to get a sharp enough pattern. Could I put a

Source 4 on a stand all the way back with a window gobo and say a 1/4 CTO?

For a higher angle, there's a possibility that I could put the light about halfway down

a staircase leading into the room but it would be about 14' from the intended wall as

opposed to going 18' feet away, although lower than 8', from the back of the room.

I've never used Source 4s before. Thanks.

It's low/no budget but we might be able to borrow a single Source 4 from one of the

crwe members jobs.

Hal Smith · January 26, 2007

I have a shoot coming up that takes place in a room about 20' long by 12' wide.
Source 4 on a stand all the way back with a window gobo and say a 1/4 CTO?..........

For a higher angle, there's a possibility that I could put the light about halfway down

a staircase leading into the room but it would be about 14' from the intended wall as

opposed to going 18' feet away, although lower than 8', from the back of the room..........

I've never used Source 4s before. Thanks.

Great lights, as I've stated before, I'd probably use one to read a book in bed at night - but then I own 32 of them in my theatrical stock.

They have an assortment of lens barrels available, the glass lenses go from 19 to 90 degrees (the 70 and 90 are new - might be nice behind softboxes) and the large plastic fresnel lens barrels are available in 5 and 10 degrees. The idea is you match the throw distance to the size pattern/beam you want. There's also a series of lenses with improved optics for projecting images, they're quite a bit sharper, but to project a window gobo, the standard glass lenses are fine.

For film/video you want the standard, 115 volt HPL lamps, not the extended life ones. They're 3200K and are the brightest. S4's (we're talking about ellipsoidals here, ETC also makes a line of S4 Pars) with the 750 watt lamps in them put out almost as much light as older 2K ellipsoidals. There's an LA rental house that has adapters to plug HMI Jokers into S4's if you need daylight.

ETC has good technical reference on their website for S4's:

http://www.etcconnect.com/product.overview.asp?ID=20080

An interactive throw/beam size/footcandles calculator is at:

http://www.etcconnect.com/minisite/sourcefour/metrics.html

Jim Feldspar · January 27, 2007

Great lights, as I've stated before, I'd probably use one to read a book in bed at night - but then I own 32 of them in my theatrical stock.

They have an assortment of lens barrels available, the glass lenses go from 19 to 90 degrees (the 70 and 90 are new - might be nice behind softboxes) and the large plastic fresnel lens barrels are available in 5 and 10 degrees. The idea is you match the throw distance to the size pattern/beam you want. There's also a series of lenses with improved optics for projecting images, they're quite a bit sharper, but to project a window gobo, the standard glass lenses are fine.

For film/video you want the standard, 115 volt HPL lamps, not the extended life ones. They're 3200K and are the brightest. S4's (we're talking about ellipsoidals here, ETC also makes a line of S4 Pars) with the 750 watt lamps in them put out almost as much light as older 2K ellipsoidals. There's an LA rental house that has adapters to plug HMI Jokers into S4's if you need daylight.

ETC has good technical reference on their website for S4's:

http://www.etcconnect.com/product.overview.asp?ID=20080

An interactive throw/beam size/footcandles calculator is at:

http://www.etcconnect.com/minisite/sourcefour/metrics.html